WWE often missed hitting the right notes with fan-favorite wrestlers’ quests for championships. They played sweet music with Kofi Kingston’s journey during WrestleMania 35 that dragged into Monday morning at MetLife Stadium, but didn’t nail its women’s main event in the same way.

Kingston’s moment, however, was perfect. He hit Trouble in Paradise and pinned Daniel Bryan in the middle of the ring to become WWE champion for the first time in his 11-year WWE career. He became the company’s fourth black heavyweight champion and just the second, along with The Rock, to hold the WWE title. Kingston is also now a Grand Slam champion in WWE.

He and Bryan built brilliantly to the final sequence with the announced crowd of 82,265 in East Rutherford hanging on every false finish, cheering Kingston back from every indignity Bryan dished out and popping big time when the member of New Day kicked out of the running knees.

When it was over, the crowd was on its feet as Kingston was immediately hugged on the mat by Big E and Xavier Woods. They were later joined by Kingston’s young son in an emotional moment before Bryan’s hemp WWE belt was replaced by the old WWE championship.

New Day even unveiled new Kingston championship T-shirts in a moment of levity. Though if you searched “New Day” you could see photos of the shirts on WWEShop.com before the match had finished.

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With Charlotte Flair out after being thrown into a table, Rousey went for Piper’s Pit, but Lynch got the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion’s shoulders to the mat for a pin. But on closer look, Rousey’s shoulder was up on the one-count, leaving it uncertain if she made a mistake or that was the plan. Rousey had not lost a single match in WWE up until that point.

The two matches were a part of eight title changes on the card that lost momentum late.

It did get off to a fast start as Brock Lesnar refused to wait for his match and his advocate Paul Heyman demanded the Universal championship match went on first on the main card. Heyman made reference to his client being appreciated in Las Vegas and Lesnar may be heading there next for a UFC fight after Seth Rollins turned the tide of a pre-match beatdown with a low blow and then three Stomps to slay The Beast.

Seth Rollins and Brock LesnarWWE

This was a perfect way to kick off the main card and we got Rollins swinging the belt at the top of the ramp. Lesnar has been tied to a potential UFC heavyweight championship fight with Daniel Cormier later this year and this clears the way for that.

Shane McMahon and The Miz didn’t have the best match of the night, but they did have the most well-crafted finish. Miz’s dad got his part of the story out of the way early by challenging McMahon to a fight and keeping him from landing an elbow on his son on the announcers’ table.

McMahon and Miz made good use of the stadium in the falls-count-anywhere match. McMahon even got knocked over a railing and onto the top of a golf cart. The match ended with Miz — after McMahon begged for mercy — suplexing his opponent off the top of a 15-foot high scaffolding onto a crash pad. McMahon landed on top of Miz for the 1-2-3 proving his is “The Best in the World”.

John Cena didn’t have a match at WrestleMania, but he was part of one it’s best segments, returning as his old Doctor of Thuganomic character. He appeared following a video package of Babe Ruth calling his shot that interrupted a very funny Elias performance. Cena, wearing a Ruth jersey and a Yankees hat, spit lines and insults to the delight of the crowd before giving Elias a Five-Knuckle Shuffle and an Attitude Adjustment. It was a great way to use Cena in a nostalgic way and hide his movie-star hair with the Yankees cap. We had to settle for just Cena and not The Undertaker.

It was the perfect example of a WrestleMania that hit a ton of superb story notes, got plenty of its winners correct, but failed to deliver enough matches that wowed, especially in a sluggish final third.

Other matches

Roman Reigns over Drew McIntyre

Reigns winning his battle with leukemia makes it understandable why you would want to bring him back as an unbeatable superhero. But what we saw against McIntyre was the same formula that the crowd booed before Reign took his break to get well — Superman punch, Spear, repeat. It’s working for now, but for how long? It also buries McIntyre, who many people think can be a main-event player.

AJ Styles over Randy Orton

Styles was able to fend off four RKOs and kicked out of the fifth. After another counter, Styles was able to hit the Phenomenal Forearm to win it. It would have been better for Orton to kick out once too, but this was a solid match from two veterans. It just won’t be on any Best of WrestleMania DVDs.

Roman ReignsWWE

Samoa Joe over Rey Mysterio to retain the United States championship

This one was over quick — who knows how healthy Mysterio’s ankle was. Joe mauled him from the start and made him tap. WWE continues to smartly build Joe as a monster. Mysterio’s son Dominic was completely cut out of this story.

The Uso defeat The Bar, Aleister Black and Ricochet and Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev to retain the SmackDown tag team titles

These teams — especially The Bar and The Uso — have made a habit of stealing big shows. This was one of the better matches on the card. Cesaro did The Swing to Ricochet as Sheamus clubbed three separate guys on the apron in a spot the crowd loved. Keeping the belts on The Uso, who won with a double Uso splash on Sheamus, is the right call. Those guys are at the top of their game right now.

The IIconics defeat Sasha Banks and Bayley (c.) Tamina and Nia Jax and Beth Phoenix and Natayla to win the women’s tag team championships

The IIconics won the titles in fitting fashion for them with a sneaky tag and taking advantage of Phoenix hitting the Glam Slam on Bayley from the top rope. Peyton Royce broke up the pin attempt and Billie Kay jumped in for the win. It was a good example of WWE delivering what the fans wanted early in the card and the IIconic will be superb heel champions. Bret Hart made an appearance on stage for Beth Phoenix and Natayla’s entrance.

Balor has had better Demon entrances and better matches. The power bomb of Lashley and Lio Rush’s scared reactions helped put The Demon character over, but the match did little too.

Baron Corbin defeats Kurt Angle in Angle’s retirement match

Angle had Corbin in position to beat him and missed a moonsault, in a short match. It gave Corbin the opening to get the win and the heel heat that comes with it from a stunned crowd. Angle then asked the audience to serenade him with the famous “You Suck!” chants as he walked off to applause. Thank you Kurt, even if that was a flat ending to your career.

Triple H defeats Batista to save his career

The two old guys tried hard, Triple H even ripped Batista’s nose ring out with a pair of scissors, but this match dragged on for way too long. Batista even tripped going into the ring after a cool entrance with two black SUVs and tons of security guards fit for a movie star.

Batista, in his first match since 2014, took a bump through a table and one on the steel steps, but was eventually undone by Ric Flair, who he had beat up at his 70th birthday celebration. The two-time Hall of Famer appeared late, distracted Batista and allowed Triple H to get the win. See you in next year’s Hall of Fame class, Batista.

Kickoff show

Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins defeat The Revival to win the Raw tag team championships

The streak is over! Curt Hawkins, who had lost 269 straight matches, rolled up Scott Dawson for the pin after playing possum as The Revival member gloated. The Long Island boys winning got a nice pop from the crowd. Fun WrestleMania moment for them, but let’s see if their reigns last more than a day.

These guys took some risks and were super snug at times. Nese got his foot on the ropes after getting hit with Murphy’s Law. The Long Island native quickly recovered to hit The Running Knees on Murphy in the corner to earn the win and the championships for the first time.

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WWE paid off Strowman’s storyline with SNL stars Colin Jost and Michael Che in a very fun and entertaining way. The duo almost won and Jost brought in his therapist before being the last person eliminated. The Weekend Update stars’ doctors later in the back were Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.

Carmella wins the Women’s WrestleMania Battle Royal

Mela was Money again. After Sarah Logan eliminated Sonya Deville and Asuka and appeared to have won, Carmella entered the match out of nowhere and ended up super kicking Logan out. It feels like this is done too often. Carmella winning will allow her to talk about it for weeks, but the match should have been used to elevate someone else. Not using Lacey Evans, who walk out on stage later, in this match also makes little sense.